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Emerging Technologies are Advancing the Future of Public Safety

By Gov CIO Outlook | Monday, February 18, 2019

The adoption of technology in the public safety domain has increased in the past few years as agencies are moving from legacy communications infrastructure to a mobile future. Advances appear when these emerging technologies deliver even greater opportunities. Have a look at these four necessary technologies.

1. Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things has been a part of the buzzword territory for long but has now become relevant in law enforcement. Robust and cost-effective sensors and cameras can provide real-time notification to the police officials for decision-making. Leveraging IoT offerings can result in improved situational awareness which further increases efficiencies and officer safety. Potential IoT opportunities include coordinated traffic signals during emergency responses. IoT sensors and cameras can provide actionable intelligence that helps the police investigation.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence acts as a watcher operating in the background thereby providing information in real-time. It enhances the effectiveness of a video by providing analytics that looks for anomalies in the environment. It has simplified one of the biggest challenges of new technology- excess information. AI can synthesize vast amounts of data thereby providing the most necessary information.

Future broadband technology will have deployments this year to support important testing and learning. Major carriers are also prioritizing their networks to promote public safety operations. This implies that the first responders will have the assurance of dedicated bandwidth sufficient to support critical operations, even when there is high network demand. 5G will permit public safety to utilize force-multiplying technology like live-streaming video and access to large cloud-based files. It will also support expanded IoT utilization, as the network will allow high densities of sensors and networked devices.

4. Wearables

Smartwatches aren’t just limited to the healthcare domain. For public safety, agencies have now given officers a convenient way to connect and integrate other mission-essential applications. As the devices are geo-enabled, situational awareness gets improved during team responses; these wearables produce alerts, images and even maps that can be easily displayed.

The technologies mentioned above are crucial facets of public safety. By providing essential information to the officers when they need it, one is effectively empowering them to do more. This would lead to a safe society, improved officer effectiveness and improved situational awareness as well.